Resumé

J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere
Born in 1930, Ovbiomu, Nigeria
Died in 2014, Lagos, Nigeria, where he lived and worked
J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere was raised in a small village in rural southwestern Nigeria. In 1950, he bought a modest Brownie D camera, and a neighbour
taught him the rudiments of photography. In 1951 he began to seek work from the Ministry of Information in Ibadan, repeatedly sending the same
letter: “I would be very grateful if you would use me for any kind of work in your photographic department.” His persistence paid off in 1954, when he
was offered a position as a darkroom assistant. Just as Nigeria was shedding colonial rule in 1961, he became a still photographer for Television
House Ibadan, a division of the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Services, the first television station in Africa. Jazz musician Steve Rhodes was
director of programming and Ojeikere has recalled, the spirit of the time: “Just after independence, we were full of ideas and energy. We were going
to conquer the world.”
In 1963 he moved to Lagos to work for West Africa Publicity. In 1967 he joined the Nigerian Arts Council, and during their festival of the following year
he began to take series of photographs dedicated to Nigerian culture. This body of work, now consisting of thousands of images, has become a unique
anthropological, ethnographic, and documentary national treasure. Most African photographers of his generation only worked on commission; this
project, unique of its kind, flourished without any commercial support.
The Hairstyle series, which consists of close to a thousand photographs, is the largest and the most thorough segment of Ojeikere’s archive. “To
watch a ‘hair artist’ going through his precise gestures, like an artist making a sculpture, is fascinating. Hairstyles are an art form,” Ojeikere has
commented. He photographs hairstyles every day in the street, in offices, at parties. He records each subject systematically: from the rear,
sometimes in profile, and occasionally head on. Those from the rear are almost abstract and best reveal the sculptural aspect of the hairstyles.
For Ojeikere, this is a never-ending project as hairstyles evolve with fashion: “All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be
noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere, Musée de Bamako, Mali
Staying Power, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2013
J.D. Okhai Ojeikere: Hairstyles, Wilmotte gallery at lichfield studios, London, UK
2005
Hairstyles, Maison de France, Lagos, Nigeria
Blaffer Gallery, Houston, U.S.A
2002
Hairstyles, Wedge Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2001
J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
2000
J.D.’Okhai Ojeikere, Cartier Foundation For Contemporary Art, Paris, France
1995
J.D.’Okhai Ojeikere, National Arts Council, Lagos, Nigeria
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
African Portraits: Omar Victor Diop, Seydou Keïta, Aida Muluneh, Malick Sidibé & J.D. 'Okhaï Ojeikere, HackelBury Gallery, London, England
Photo Basel, Switzerland
2015 - 2016
Making Africa, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany - Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain - Contemporary Cultural Center, Barcelona,
Spain
2015
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Africa, Louisiana Museum, Modern Art Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
In and Out of the Studio : Photographic Portraits from West Africa, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
1:54, Contemporary African Art fair, New-York, USA
Staying Power, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2014
MAGNIN-A 107 bd Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris
T. +33 1 43 38 13 00 / + 33 9 51 46 15 - [email protected] - www.magnin-a.com
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Mémoires vives, Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris, France
Here Africa, Musée des Suisses du Monde, Geneva, Switzerland
Tribute to Frédéric Bruly Bouabré & J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Art Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
2013
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Paris Photo Los Angeles, USA
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, UK
Keïta, Ojeikere, Sidibé, 11 Columbia, Monaco
Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, Venice Biennale, 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy
Sartorial Moments and the Nearness of Yesterday, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
2012
Cheveux Chéris, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
Portraits et Identités, The Walter Collection, Burlafingen, Germany
2011
ARS 11`, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
2010
A life in Pictures, Lagos, Nigeria
Anos 70, Fotografia y vida cotidiana, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain
Stare: The Pleasures of the Intensely Familiar and the Strangely Unexpected, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
2007
Art & about, City of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
2006
100% Africa, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
Vive l’Afrique, Galerie du Jour -Agnès b., Paris, France
Galerie du Jour -Agnès b. Tokyo, Japan
About Africa, part one, Fifty-One Fine Art Photography, Anvers, Belgium
2005/2006
Arts of Africa, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC., U.S.A
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, U.S.A
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, U.S.A
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, U.S.A
2005
Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Vive l’Afrique, Galerie du Jour – Agnès b., Paris, France
2004/2005
Kurzdavordanach, Photographischen Sammlung, SK Stiftung Kultur, Mediapark, Köln, Germany
2004
Je m’installe aux abattoirs, La collection d’art contemporain d’Agnès b., Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
Joy of Life - Malick Sidibé and Ojeikere, Two Photographers from Africa, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2003/ 2004
Parures de tête, Musée Dapper, Paris, France
2001
Century City: art and culture in the modern metropolis, Tate Modern, London, UK
2000
Africa Inside
Noorderlicht 2000 photofestival
Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
La Beauté in fabula, Palais des Papes, Avignon, France
1996
Nigerian Traditional Hairstyle, Goethe-Institut, Lagos, Nigeria
1983
«Ten top Photographers », National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria
1978
Photography in Advertising, 50th Anniversary of Lintas Limited, Lagos, Nigeria
Collections
Museum of Modern Art, New-York
Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris
The Art Institute of Chicago
Princeton University Art Museum
MAGNIN-A 107 bd Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris
T. +33 1 43 38 13 00 / + 33 9 51 46 15 - [email protected] - www.magnin-a.com